Preventing person-to-person spread following gastrointestinal infections: guidelines for public health physicians and environmental health officers

Abstract

This guidance updates advice on preventing person-to-person spread of gastrointestinal infections in the general population, first published in 1983 by the Public Health Laboratory Service and last updated in 1995. It represents a consensus of informed opinion and is particularly aimed at those public health physicians and environmental health officers who do not specialise in communicable disease control. It addresses predominantly the organisms that more commonly present them with problems. The guidance considers general measures, enteric precautions, exclusion from work, school and other settings and groups that pose an increased risk of spreading infection.